Evangelicals

Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), met with the director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) on May 10 to discuss the place of the Chinese Evangelical Church within the global Christian community. The meeting in Beijing was the third between the pair and was part of an ongoing relationship-building process with the China Christian Council (CCC) and the government, WEA official have said.

Over recent years China has experienced a surge in spiritual life which has seen Christianity expand significantly across the Asian economic powerhouse. However, religion remains a sensitive subject in the Communist-led country.

Building relations through open dialogue is the key goal of the mutual effort between Chinese officials and Christian organizations, Tunnicliffe said in a conversation with The Christian Post this week. more >>

The U.S. Catholic Church will hold an event this summer called "Fortnight for Freedom" to bring attention to religious freedom issues. The Christian Post has learned that discussions are underway to include evangelical organizations with these events. Evangelical organizations have expressed solidarity with Catholic leaders who oppose the Obama administration's birth control mandate, which, they argue, is a religious freedom issue.

In separate interviews, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokesperson for the USCCB, and Galen Carey, vice president for government relations at the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), both confirmed that discussions have taken place on how evangelicals might coordinate events with Catholics for "Fortnight for Freedom," but nothing has been finalized.

The Catholic bishops "have invited us to join them," Carey said Tuesday. "There have been discussions, we're not exactly sure what form that might take, but we certainly have expressed our solidarity with Catholics on [the religious freedom] issue." more >>

Influential pastor John Piper made his joyful reaction clear via the Web shortly after getting word that his congregation had overwhelmingly agreed with church elders on their choice of Jason Meyer as his successor.

"God came down and kissed Bethlehem tonight. 784 Yes. 8 No. Jason Meyer has been approved to take hold of this baton," Piper tweeted on Sunday after the vote taken at Bethlehem Baptist Church located in the Twin Cities metro area of Minnesota.

Meyer will fall under Piper's pastoral mentorship and an "overlap" period between the two beginning Aug. 1. more >>

The manufacturer of a new T-shirt design using the phrase "MY Jesus" is now under fire from the NFL for using a design similar to the New York Jets football team. The shirts were designed to highlight the fact that team's newest addition, quarterback Tim Tebow, is a popular Christian athlete.

NBC Sports reported on Sunday that CubbyTees.com, the company that produces the shirts received a cease-and-desist letter last week from NFL attorneys. The letter states that if the company does not immediately stop production of the shirts then the NFL will take further legal action.

In addition, The Christian Post reported last week that attorneys for Tebow also sent a letter to the company asking them to stop production because of the assumption that Tebow was endorsing the product. more >>

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi blasted a Republican proposal that would protect military chaplains from performing same-sex marriages, saying the provision in unnecessary.

"Nobody is ordering them to do that," Pelosi told reporters Thursday. "I've never seen any suggestion that we're ordering chaplains to perform same-sex [marriages]. Where is that? I think that they can rest assured that if they don't believe in that, they don't have to perform those."

The issue surfaced after military chaplains expressed concern they would be ordered to marry same-sex couples against their personal beliefs and/or the beliefs of their denomination. Following President Barack Obama's announcement last week that he backs gay marriage, Republicans immediately proposed an amendment to the 2013 defense authorization bill that would protect chaplains from violating their conscience, moral principles and religious beliefs. more >>

A group of influential black ministers – some of whom are connected with the fifth largest denomination in the U.S. – gathered Thursday in one of the nation's most famous civil rights cities to ask President Obama to reverse his stance on same-sex marriage.

More than a dozen pastors from the Coalition of African American Pastors joined in Memphis, Tenn., to speak out against Obama's support for gay marriage and to oppose the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community's "hijacking" of the civil rights movement.

"Same-sex marriage I think, it's an abomination before God. It's a sin before God," said the Rev. Robert Morris, acting minister of New Jerusalem Church of God in Christ, according to Fox 13 News. "I don't see how anyone can compare that with civil rights." more >>